of the investigation it is not very easy to state
the balance of probabilities. The matter is still quite speculative. The
bones which have been found hitherto (for we are dealing with a
skeleton, not with a body) have been exclusively those which are useless
for personal identification; which is, in itself, a rather curious and
striking fact. The general character and dimensions of the bones seem to
suggest a middle-aged man of about your brother's height, and the date
of deposition appears to be in agreement with the date of his
disappearance."

"Is it known, then, when they were deposited?" Mr. Bellingham asked.

"In the case of those found at Sidcup it seems possible to deduce an
approximate date. The watercress-bed was cleaned out about two years
ago, so they could not have been lying there longer than that; and their
condition suggests that they could not have been there much less than
two years, as there is apparently not a vestige of the soft structures
left. Of course, I am speaking from the newspaper reports only; I have
no direct knowledge of the matter."

"Have they found any considerable part of the body yet? I haven't been
reading the papers myself. My little friend, Miss Oman, brought a great
bundle of 'em for me to read, but I couldn't stand it; I pitched the
whole boiling of 'em out of the window."

I thought I detected a slight twinkle in Thorndyke's eye, but he
answered quite gravely:

"I think I can give you the particulars from memory, though I won't
guarantee the dates. The original discovery was made, apparently quite
accidentally, at Sidcup on the fifteenth of July. It consisted of a
complete left arm, minus the third finger and including the bones of the
shoulder--the shoulder-blade and collar-bone. This discovery seems to
have set the local population, especially the juvenile part of it,
searching all the ponds and streams of the neighbourhood--"

"Cannibals!" interjected Mr. Bellingham.

"With the result that there was dredged up out of a pond near St. Mary
Cray, in Kent, a right thigh-bone. There is a slight clue to identity in
respect of this bone, since the head of it has a small patch of what is
called 'eburnation'--that is a sort of porcelain-like polish that occurs
on the parts of bones that form a joint when the natural covering of
cartilage is destroyed by disease. It is produced by the unprotected
surface of one bone grinding against the similarly unprotected surface
of anoth